What is an Expungement?

Once you’ve paid your debt to society with fines, a jail sentence, or successfully completing probation, it is time to clean up your criminal record. Expungement of your criminal record can help you in many areas of your life, such as getting jobs, achieving an education, obtaining professional licensure and perhaps most importantly, gaining peace of mind.

An expungement will seal your criminal records from your file. Once your record is expunged, you no longer need to disclose your criminal record on job applications, except when applying for public office, for licensure by any state or local agency, or for contracting with the California State Lottery. Otherwise, it's as if the offense never happened.

California has made big changes in its expungement laws as of January 1, 2008. In the past, you could have a criminal conviction such as DUI, hit-and-run, vehicular manslaughter or evading a police officer expunged merely by fulfilling the requirements of your sentence and probation.

However, California’s new law requires that you have a formal court hearing regarding your expungement, and the presiding judge has complete discretion over whether your criminal conviction is removed from your record or remains as written.

Therefore, the hearing may require calling witnesses, filing legal declarations, preparing additional information for the court about you and your particular circumstances, and outlining how your good conduct and reform justify expunging your conviction.

However, despite the new requirements, it is still entirely possible to have your California criminal conviction expunged. Once you do so, you can truthfully assert that you were never convicted of that offense.

A juvenile record can be sealed through the juvenile court after a successful hearing. Once this has been done, the offense shall be deemed never to have occurred. There are no exceptions to this type of sealing; it is as if the offense never happened and cannot be revisited.

If you were convicted of a felony, it’s often possible to have the offense reduced to a misdemeanor and then expunged. Other types of record-cleansing include obtaining a Certificate of Rehabilitation and Pardon.

Although California lawmakers have made expungement more difficult, it’s still entirely possible to clear your criminal record and move forward with your life.